A group of students have launched a campaign to get Lowcountry Preparatory School to retain three teachers who weren’t offered contracts next year.

The announcement of the hiring decision before the spring break caused an outcry from students and parents.

The students, who asked that their names not be used because they are concerned about retaliation, started a petition drive and have asked for a question-and-answer session with the headmaster.

Last month, in an e-mail to the school, headmaster Scott Gibson wrote, “a number of good folks will be moving on to the bigger and better things of proverb.” Those included three teachers from the upper school: Gary Gates, Michelle Neubauer and Shannon Lewis.

“Each of them has played a role in shaping the distinct culture of our school. We thank them for their constructive contributions,” Gibson wrote before turning to other topics.

But students said they had already heard the news. “Over half of the upper school student body literally cried in their classrooms or in the bathrooms,” they wrote in their petition letter.

They said the e-mail to the school was disingenuous. “Our teachers were fired. Period,” they wrote.

Gibson, who became headmaster last year, did not return a message left at the school office.

David Grabeman, president of the school’s trustee board, said he hadn’t seen the letter from the students. “I can say no one was fired,” he said. The contracts were not renewed.